\n<\/p>\n
UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall says seeing Conor Benn secure a reported \u00a311m one-fight deal with Zuffa Boxing helped to convince him to team up with Eddie Hearn.<\/b><\/p>\n
Britain’s Aspinall joined Hearn’s ‘Matchroom Talent Agency’ on Thursday in a “commercial and advisory” deal rather than a promotional one, meaning the 32-year-old remains signed to the UFC.<\/p>\n
The move – a bid by Aspinall to maximise his earnings outside of the UFC – has come two weeks after boxer Benn left Hearn’s promotional outfit Matchroom to join Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing.<\/p>\n
Benn’s deal with UFC president White’s boxing promotion ruffled the feathers of several UFC fighters, including Aspinall, who earn significantly less than their boxing counterparts.<\/p>\n
“I think if one guy gets $15m [\u00a311m] and the other guy gets $15k [\u00a311,000], that’s a big deal to make, which is part of the reason I want to explore other options,” said Aspinall during a news conference on Friday.<\/p>\n
“I want to be a trailblazer for MMA fighters who can make a lot of money and be successful outside the octagon as well as inside.<\/p>\n
“Publicly or privately, a lot of MMA fighters complain about the money we’re getting paid, but that’s the contract we all signed. I’ve accepted that and I want to make as much money outside the octagon as I possibly can.”<\/p>\n
Hearn described himself as Aspinall’s “manager”, stressing that his role is to “build Tom commercially”.<\/p>\n
Aspinall has ruled out boxing in the immediate future as he remains contracted to the UFC, which forbids fighters from competing in other combat sports without obtaining permission.<\/p>\n
Hearn said: “Now’s about moving forward with Tom, building him commercially, growing his profile, building that relationship with brands and fans.<\/p>\n
“And also making sure he gets what he absolutely deserves with the commercial power he has as a fighter.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall says seeing Conor Benn secure a reported \u00a311m one-fight deal with Zuffa Boxing helped to convince him to team up with Eddie Hearn. Britain’s Aspinall joined Hearn’s ‘Matchroom Talent Agency’ on Thursday in a “commercial and advisory” deal rather than a promotional one, meaning the 32-year-old remains signed to the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boxing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}